Magic and Tengu
by Dagron
Summary: Crossover Akako Koizumi faces some trouble at home, that only a certain moonlit thief can save her from. Meanwhile, a certain wizard is on his way to find some way to defeat an old foe. Harry Potter spoilers. Magic Kaito.


_Livejournal Many Cases One Truth Ficswap 2006/07.  
"Dagronrat writes for Alchemy101 -- Detective Conan. Harry Potter. No dead bodies. Go!"_

_What, no murder? We are talking about two series that star corpse magnets right? (As mean as the statement is for Harry, you've got to admit he's seen a fair amount of death, nay?)  
Oh well, can do, but don't expect comedy either._

_Word Count: Around 6000 words.  
Rating: Teen, for very mild swears and themes of pain.  
Disclaimer: J.K.Rowling's the one who's rich from Harry Potter ownage. Gosho Aoyama owns the DC/MK crew. Other known characters belong to their respective owners.  
Spoilers: For up to book 6 of Harry Potter "The Half blood Prince."  
Characters: This may be a Harry Potter and Detective Conan Crossover, it features the Magic Kaito crew **heavily**.  
Notes: would have been posted sooner had I not written it in the wrong language first. Akako, I blame you!_

--:--**  
Magic and Tengu.  
**--:--

**T**he young woman clenched her jaw as the men below her ran around, looking for her without finding her. It wasn't easy to remain immobile in this position, but if she wanted to stay unnoticed, she had to hold on. If she moved as little as an inch before those below her left the domain, she would be found, and at that moment, the gargoyle upon which she was crouched would be of as little a help as her charms.  
She loathed the wizards beneath her. Ah, she envied the Muggles of her nation, with their innocent view of the world. For them, the wars had ended with Nagasaki.  
For those who had magic in their blood however...

Ah! Now her arm had started to slip. She had to refrain herself from swearing as she closed her eyes to focus more energy on her muscles... And those darn Tengu guards that continued their search below!

Afterwards people were surprised the world seemed so devoid of magic...

Ever since the Tengu, or lord Voldemort as some called him, had begun to wreck havoc on the world of witchcraft, being a witch in Japan had become a hazardous occupation. The magic government of the time, in the fifties, was not only unable to predict or defend against the two atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagazaki, (but Akako had to admit that it was difficult to expect a wizard of that period to believe such devastation could be the fruit of a Muggle invention), but it also, when it saw the rising influence of the great and evil sorcerer spreading from Europe across the world, decided not to isolate the country from the menace as had been done in the past; instead they swiftly submitted themselves to the ideals of this Lord Voldemort.

So as a result, either a wizard was expected to entirely submit him or herself to the "Tengu" government, either he had to live in hiding, so as not to be executed... Thank goodness they were as yet still too intimidated to actively harm the Muggle population without any direct orders from their great leader. Akako wondered whether the young boy responsible for the downfall of that evil bird was aware that there were thankful wizards and witches as far away from him as the other side of the globe?

Yes, but there was the problem... Rumour had it the Tengu had risen again from his ashes, a story that gave way too much zeal to his official supporters for young Koizumi's tastes.

The worse of the lot was right before her eyes, most likely their leader... Yes, that guy with the bald head waving his wand around as if he owned the place... His men were mindless brutes, obeying blindly his every bark of idiocy, their bleak grey coats with a Tengu-shaped badge their dreaded uniform.

... Drat, now baldy was looking straight at her.  
Thank goodness the young witch's spell prevented him from seeing her, whatever the spell he may have attempted to spot her... But damn were his eyes disturbing. For a split second she had risked throwing away her life out of surprise. They were so huge she was certain he had to hide them by magic in Muggle presence to go unnoticed. And the strange glow hidden in them...

"CRAP!"

Her hand had just slipped, no longer preventing her from falling chin first onto the stone statue she was perched on.

And as expected, the gorillas and mister big-eyes were nastily overjoyed as they witnessed her hastily woven protection spell collapsing around her.

She could already see herself drained of all her life force in a single bolt-of-green-magic, as, she presumed, her parents had been before her. Or would they keep her alive? Another slave in their prisons of opponents. Oh dear... What was the point of making the male population of Japan beg at her feet if it couldn't work to save her... At least her elders had the privilege of a descent magical education... What about her? She had had the choice between her grandmother's books, her mother's lessons or one long session of brainwashing in the current "educational system" of the magic administration.

But no, she could not sully the Koizumi name by letting these monkeys believe she would surrender without showing any resistance.

And she, unlike them, knew how to cast a spell without the aid of a magic wand.

--:--

**H**e couldn't believe it. It was as if he had just entered into a whole new world.  
Kaitou Kid's habit, after a theft, was to go home at his own pace, take a good bath, finish his homework in a hurry before going to sleep with a satisfied grin...  
He was not used to finding himself chased by his two clingiest "lovers", especially not to end up finding himself on Koizumi's property...  
And even less used to seeing the latter be the toy and not the mistress of a crowd of men.

"Oh crap..."

However, his first impression was quickly readjusted when he heard the band's leader, a bald man he instantaneously nicknamed Gollum in his mind, demand of Koizumi the location of a certain stone.

Men in grey, looking for a stone at a magic user's place...

"Double crap!"

And just in case this realization hadn't been enough to warn him of the danger he faced, one of Gollum's henchmen had just noticed his presence, throwing in his direction something alarmingly akin to Koizumi's lightning.

He avoided it as best he could, before fleeing as he heard the men in grey cry out in alarm. His strategic retreat may have lacked class, it was better than being killed on the spot.

He was, however, now caught between Charybdis and Scylla.  
On the one hand, he was risking capture by Hakuba or the squirt detective, on the other, crazy wizards were throwing lightning at him. Sure, it was obvious Hakuba and Edogawa were, in this case, the lesser evil, but if he was caught, who would help out Koizumi?

Hey! Who knows... Maybe the thief could convince his most loyal adversaries to become his allies the time to save a damsel in distress?

Where were they, anyway? With the racket the lightning strikes behind him were creating as they hit against the wall of the Koizumi home, it was astonishing that they weren't already on the spot.

Aha! A soccer ball just came flying out of the woods! ... Slightly too close to his charming features for Kid's taste, but it did signal the small detective's arrival. The sound of cussing behind him was proof enough that the prior teenager's shot had hit someone... Maybe it was best to come to the shrunken Kudo's aid before he brought serious harm upon himself.

"I've found you, Kid." Typically Edogawa, to show off in such a dire situation. Kid ignored the young boy's superior smile in favour of a running tackle to flatten him on the ground before one of the men in grey, who had approached, could finish the task first undertaken by a certain pair of men in black.

Noticing the startled and confused expression on his young opponent's face, Kid decided not to waste time in explanations. The squirt would understand the situation soon enough, there were other matters that needed urgent attention.

"How many more soccer balls can your belt conjure up?"

Kid grabbed Edogawa once more in his arms to roll them further away, barely avoiding a new attack in the process, to the temporary shelter of a clump of trees.

"I can only use one, and that's the one I kicked at you." he replied. "Damn it, what are those mad men shooting at us with!"

Ah yes, that was right... Edogawa was one of those detectives who believed in logic before all, despite the fact his own shrunken body was evidence that the impossible could and did exist...  
Which would make his reaction even more amusing when Kid answers him in all honesty.

"But with magic wands, of course."  
Kid's large grin was enough to wipe away the young detective's astonishment and replace it with a frown that clearly read "_who do you think I am?_"  
"Back to serious business, do you think you can shoot into some light and teargas grenades hard enough to send them behind those men there?"

Edogawa pondered this for a moment, before finding himself once more carted into the air by the white clad thief. The clump of trees had exploded into a fountain of flames.

"Yes." His answer was adamant, once they had both found another makeshift shelter to hide behind. "I should be able to manage that."

"Good. Then do it."

And on that note, Kid put his freshly improvised plan into motion.  
After all, unless he'd been mislead, these guys were likely responsible for his father's death.

--:--

**A**kako refrained from letting out a flow of curses as big-eyes repeated his question, this time torturing her with a spell that surpassed in pain anything she could have imagined. So this was the effect of Crucio? No wonder it was a forbidden spell, even in the older books...

And damn bald man... How could he be so impermeable to her lightning, not hesitate at the sight of it striking down two of his goons?

"If you tell us where the object we are after is, the pain will stop and we'll finish off your friends behind me... If you comply quickly, maybe we'll even let you live."

She'd rather die... And what friends was he speaking of? His foolish men must be getting riled up over nothing, a lost deer... She had seen them petrify her manservant, and she did not know of any one else who would be able to help her in any way...  
"If that's the way you want it... Cruci-!"But before the spell could seize her again in its infernal grasp, big-eyes paused to inquire about what the devil was happening behind his back. He could hear screams of pain coming from his men, but he could hear no thunder... He'd been certain about his information! The young witch lived there alone with only one manservant; she would only hang out with Muggles, and would use mainly spells of thunder and manipulative charms...  
Who in the world...?

He was about to regret his moment of curiosity. He had turned around just in time to be blinded by a flash of light much brighter than his prey's sparks. He may have set up protections against electric shocks, but his eyes had never been so defenceless against sudden blindness.  
With a hoarse cry, he covered his eyes with his hands, joining his men in their pain, unable to see the acrid fog that attacked the sight of the rare few who hadn't been blinded by the light bombs.

Akako Koizumi, however, was offered the privilege of admiring the show, having ironically been shielded from the light by her torturer, and at great enough a distance from the teargas.  
Although she did share the wizards' confusion, she couldn't help but smile at his demise... And she was starting to have a feeling she knew who the responsible party was.

She couldn't afford to lose much time though. The magician with his own unreadable brand of magic wouldn't be able to distract the enemy eternally. As long as the wizards were able to use magic, they would remain dangerous, blind or not. The young witch heaved herself to her feet with the help of the stone colonnade upon which was the gargoyle she had used as protection prior sat. Her legs were still shaking from her brief torture session. She felt surprised that her school uniform still seemed undamaged, if a bit scuffed.

Now quickly, where did she drop it? Her eyes scanned the ground for the only magic item she'd been able to grab in her home... Before she'd seen her manservant petrified... Before she had had to flee to the surrounding woods...

And how did those cursed Tengus find her here? How did they get into her grounds? Where did they find out that she was a witch who opposed Voldemort's ideals, when her home was cleverly hidden, when to all those who surrounded her she was nothing but a Muggle high school girl who was hugely popular with the boys? And even if they did find out, why act now, with so much man power?

Why were they after that stone?Ahah! There it was...  
She reached out her hand to grasp her magic sceptre, which had fallen into a bush not far from where she herself had crashed upon the shattering of her protection spell.

The shrub burst into flames the moment she had retrieved it. She turned around to face the cause of the combustion.  
Baldy was pointing his wand at her, his uncovered eye bloodshot and teary, his skin tone grey as his boiling rage and pain forced him to breath in rapid spurts. She clenched her jaw.

"Where. Is. Pan. Do. Ra !"

As if she was going to reply. Calling to her all the demonic forces, she raised her sceptre as her coal black hair swirled around her like an aura, her eyes glowing with a fiery red glint.

A whistling was heard, and Baldy's wand snapped in two. He didn't seem to notice this however, as he proceeded to shouted a loud Crucio at her... Only to find himself screaming once more in pain, this time from his arm. To use a broken wand was like playing with fire.

Letting her accumulated power dissipate, Akako glanced around to find the cause. The wand had not snapped of it's own will, and she knew herself unable to snap it so with her own powers.

That was when she noticed that it wasn't only men in dark coats she had before her, fighting blindly in the pink coloured fog they'd occasionally brighten up with their incantations. She had no difficulty in recognizing Kid's waxen form, the childish thief was pleasantly somersaulting from one wizard to the next, causing them to curse one another, as his crystalline laughter rang out between their spells and swears. His face hidden behind a protective gas mask, he mocked his adversaries, shooting in between two provocations at their wands with his playing cards, reducing them to silence.

But he wasn't alone. Further off she could see a flock of heteroclite objects, -pine cones, logs, stones,- flying at great speeds towards the heads of Tengu Guards that were not going to remain conscious long. She remembered her earlier prediction and the two shadows that followed Kid... Yes, that must be the doing of that soccer-fiend detective; the other one couldn't be far off.  
And indeed, Hakuba Saguru could be seen on her right, just on the fringes of the teargas smog. Armed with a shotgun and silencer, he was shooting expertly at the few still intact wands of the men emerging from the pink smoke.

"Don't forget, Kid, aim for their wands!" He shouted.

"Yes, yes," went the thief. Akako couldn't help but feel a shiver run down her spine at the sight of the two rivals acting, for once, as allies. Even in the classroom such an occurrence was rare. The fact she had foreseen this possibility in her crystal ball didn't help...

She heard a scrambling sound at her feet, and noticed that Big-eyes was attempting to stand up, like a pathetic worm. Normally she wouldn't have hesitated to pay him back in full what he'd done to her, to make him grovel at her feet and ask his queen for forgiveness. But she was tired... She was in shock. All she did was look at him with indifference... What more could he do to her after all?

_Ah._

Indeed, he could have nicely decided to crawl over to his pals and call out a retreat, but mister Gollum had obviously gone for option B, which was to immobilise Akako with the use of a sharp knife under her chin.

A predatory grin crept onto Akako's face...

As the bald wizard barked out his demands to the thief and detective, the trapped witch called back her magic strength, and, sceptre still in hand, prepared herself for the kill. The fool behind her was completely oblivious to the real reasons behind Kid's intimidated back step.

Gollum's men, however, could see that things were turning sour. Hugging the remains of their magic wands to their chests, they discreetly eclipsed themselves, shamed to be fleeing from one teenage witch and what looked like three Muggles. She noted in the corner of her eye that Hakuba's hand had tightened on his firearm, as a small silhouette passed barely noticeable behind them. Baldy was still having trouble seeing the pink smoke subside...

But none of this mattered; the only thing of importance was that she had the possibility to act.  
With a small chuckle, the red witch touched the knife with the tip of her sceptre and said in a calm and composed voice:  
"Go to hell."

--:--

**H**arry Potter and his friends had travelled a lot in the last few months. India, China, Bulgaria and Albania, they were well pleased that Hermione had figured out some spell to allow them to communicate a minimum despite their despairingly monolingual nature.

"You are sure it's this way?"

"Yes Ron. Kotake and Koume told us that if we were looking for a Horcrux in Japan, our best thread of enquiry would be at a certain Koizumi's. Elphaba Thropp did indicate to us that it would be around here... Fly straight over the capital, from west to east, flying over Tokyo Tower, turn 110 degrees to the right and her home should be right in the middle of some woods."

"Right," said Ron. "But why the devil do Muggles put a wood right in the middle of a town?"  
And as if to illustrate his boredom, he decided to do a barrel roll on his broom stick. Hermione being seated right behind him, could only squeal in response as she held on tight. She had tried to fly on a broom of her own, but the boys would always fly off way ahead of her. Ron merely cackled as she reminded him he had promised not to frighten her so anymore.

"You know, Ron, in London too there're some woods in the middle. Remember? We saw them when we borrowed your dad's car to fly to Hogwarts," replied Harry, as he flew slightly ahead of his two friends.  
He scanned the woods with his eyes, looking for any trace of a home. They had been told that the Koizumi property was not only invisible to Muggle eyes, but also to the wizards that did not know what they were looking for.

"Oh yeah, that was in second year, wasn't it?" Ron's gaze wandered, as he recalled the passed years. Once more he felt the slight pang of guilt. It may have been a month already since the new school year had started at Hogwarts, it didn't stop him from feeling that he should have been there. But what mattered to him the most, as he fully knew, was being by Harry's side. And besides, what was the use of returning to Hogwarts when Dumbledore was no longer there?

"Hey, guys?"

"Hm?" went the two boys, one still looking for the Koizumi household, the other looking at the skyscrapers in a bored manner... After the towns of India and China, they were nothing new.

"I think we've got a problem..." Raising a trembling hand, an extremely rare and worrying occurrence on its own, Hermione pointed at a spot of sky right nearly above them.

There was a cloud. A cloud that was growing and darkening by the second.

"Oh, son of a..."

Ron was not given the luxury of completing his oath. The cloud had began to swirl downwards towards them, before, in a blinding flash of light and a deafening crash, projecting the three of them and their broomsticks towards the woods below.

It was the first time a storm had managed to take them by surprise so suddenly. With the smell of ozone filling his nostrils, Harry realized that his right arm seemed to have been hit. He bit his lip as although he could smell his burnt flesh, he needed to hold on and not let go of his broom unless he wished to discover how it felt to be a pancake. He could feel the wind of his fall whipping at his face as he struggled to regain control, despite the insisting and growing pain. Just as he thought the crisis was over though, a new obstacle made its presence known...

In the shape of an invisible wall, into which he crashed with force.

For the glimpse of an instant, he saw Ron and Hermione do the same before continuing their fall as if there had never been an obstacle between them and the ground, them and the house he'd finally spotted...

He lost consciousness hearing Ron cry out his name. Harry was no longer falling down, no... Some red netting had grabbed him and kept him up there, slowly tightening its hold on him. Hermione and Ron got to see his scar shine for the breath of a moment before losing sight of him...

However they had much more pressing worries...

--:--

_**Z**AP!_

_Swip!_

_Fiut!_

_Pschout!  
_  
... There are times where it is possible to overdo things.  
The bald wizard who had taken Akako hostage would have been the first to agree had he not been the sole target of a bolt of lightning, a sleep dart, a laminated game card and a bullet. Luckily for him, none of his attackers had aimed to kill. His arm and hand drenched in his blood, he dropped the knife before falling to his knees stunned by the lightning. His eyes were bloodshot and he had some burns, but he'd survive. In the moment that followed, he crumpled to the ground, the sleeping drug starting to take hold.

Kid, who'd stepped forward, whistled his appreciation.  
But it didn't take him long to turn towards Hakuba and ask him with a cynical face:  
"And since when does this good sir carry around a gun with a silencer on it?"

The British detective smiled back at the thief.  
"But ever since one of these charming gentlemen offered it to me, my dear thief. He is probably now still taking a nap in the spot of the woods where I made it quite clear to him I would not be letting myself killed."

Kid was about to respond, while Conan rolled his eyes and Akako poked the bald wizard with her foot, when a noise from above stopped him.

"_Do something Hermione! We can't end as pancakes only to leave Harry in the hands, arms, er t-tentacles of th-that thing!_"

"_Shut up Ron, I am trying to concentrate!_"

Looking up they could notice two foreigners, a man and a woman, falling with what looked like a cloak around them and a broom firmly between their legs. The woman was making circles in the air while wordlessly mouthing some mystical words.  
Conan let out a squeak mere seconds before being flattened not by the strangers, but by a cushion of air magically appeared out of nowhere to brake the two's fall.

Silence reigned, until the tall redhead decided to express his innermost thought.  
"_... I think I need some new pants._"

The Phantom Thief Kid was used to astounding others, not being struck speechless himself. It was a good thing he knew where to find his poker face.

"Miss Koizumi? Are you expecting more guests like this? Because if we're in the way, we can leave, eh?"

For an answer, the so-called witch crumbled to her knees.

--:--

**H**arry opened his green eyes slowly, wondering what on earth the racket could be... Remembering his unlucky adventure, he sat up with a jolt. It was a bad move, for his head was now ringing with pain as a result. He should have known not to make any sudden movements in such situations. He had had enough experience with the Hogwarts infirmary.

"Ah! Harry! You're awake!" It was Ron. Ron was alive. Ron was well.

"Hermione?" asked Harry, looking around him, wondering if the red-tentacle creature was still around, whether the remains of his broom were littering the ground... He was expecting the worse, and considering what they had gone through during their travels, he had reason to be pessimistic.

"I'm here, Harry."

With no sight of the blood or corpses he'd been expecting, and the vision of Hermione in full health approaching him, Harry sighed in relief.

"What happened?" he asked, searching for his glasses with his fingertips. They weren't on his face, so... Ah! There they were, on the bedside table. And now that he thought about it, how come he was on the bed of a bedroom? A very luxurious room, despite the dust and cracks in the walls.

"We are at Koizumi's!" replied his ginger friend. Ron's grin seemed to indicate that more detailed explanations would be superfluous.

"But, what of that thing that...!" Harry was interrupted by Hermione as she caught his arm, making him stand up and follow her out of the room, despite Ron's cry of protest.

"That thing, Harry," said the young witch, "is Miss Koizumi's equivalent of a security system."

"Miss?" he repeated, as they entered a living room as luxurious as the room they had just left.  
In it they found an eight or nine year old boy, two young men of which one dressed all in white, his cape included, and an older man with whom mother nature had not been very generous was standing behind the last occupant of the room, a young woman whose appearance alone was enough to make him forget about invisible barriers and tentacle monsters. So this was the famous Koizumi...  
So stunned by the woman's beauty was he that he did not even notice Hermione's irritation when he froze on the spot.

"Really... Boys are all the same," she grumbled, casting an angry glance at Ron, who was looking just as transfixed by the mistress of the house. If she could have dealt with the object of their visit without the boys, she would have.

Never mind. All she could do, while waiting for Harry and Ron to snap out of it, was wait for their host and her companions to finish their discussion. It sounded like some sort of argument... Maybe it would be a good idea to listen and try to understand what they were talking about?

Ignoring the glare of the small boy she and Ron had been unlucky enough to knock out in their fall, she pulled out her wand and tapped her ear while silently performing the Babylon charm.

"Wait a second... If I understand right, these guys were part of some _official_ militia of wizards with magic powers similar to yours?"

There, the spell was working. She could now perfectly comprehend what the man in the white suit was saying. He was the one who had been kind enough to offer her a flower from nowhere to thank her for helping them un-stun the old man. She couldn't help but blush at the memory.

"And you," he continued, turning to the second youth, the one with auburn hair. "You are a... A..."

"Squib. At least from the point of view of my mother's side of the family. My father is a fully fledged Muggle... Luckily I'd say, considering the Japanese situation." Hermione had to admit a certain admiration for the young man who had just spoken. She had rarely seen a squib so openly and easily admit his status.

"And there's that weird term again! Muggle! What is a Muggle? What is a squib? And what is this Japanese situation?"

Huh? Now that was curious... A wizard unfamiliar with the term for Muggle? As for the Japanese situation, Hermione could not help but feel a weight in her chest. Japan was one of the few countries in the world where a Wizard dictatorship coexisted with a democratic Muggle regime. What was worse, the wizard dictator of Japan was only waiting for direct approbation from Voldemort so he could attack the Muggle system.  
The only thing that had prevented him from doing so till then was fear of a Muggle counterattack with the H bomb.

"A Muggle is someone who does not have the powers of a wizard, Kid," said the young squib. "A squib, is nothing more or less than a Muggle born of wizarding parents. The wizard community traditionally keeps its existence secret from Muggle eyes. That's why neither you nor Conan," he continued, indicating the young bespectacled boy brooding on his chair, "were aware of its existence. Though I must admit that sometimes I wonder if you are but a wizard ignorant of his nature." He finished, his lips curled into a smile.

That explained the flower then, thought Hermione. Kid was obviously a Muggle performer.

"Okay, and what about this Japanese situation? Can you explain that to me Hakuba?" Kid's displeasure was obvious in his tone of voice.

"As for me, I would like to know when you'll let me go home. I am not finding this elaborate joke funny at all. The only reason I am not trying to capture you, Kid," said the young Conan, his eyes glued on Kid, "is because apparently you've even managed to get Hakuba on your side, and there aren't any police men here for me to hand you over to. I don't give a damn about these stories of wizardry!"

Hermione couldn't help but to laugh under her breath at the child's reaction. Obviously he was one of those hard and stubborn people like the Dursleys. The kind to say magic did not exist even if he saw it with his own two eyes.

"There are times, my young friend, where it is necessary to put aside one's notions, be it only for a night... Did Kid not protect you from their lightning?" The bespectacled boy went quiet, sinking his head between his knees as if to say he had heard enough. Hakuba left him alone after that.

"As for the Japanese situation," he went on, "I am probably not the best person to ask, since I come to this country as a Muggle to 'forget' the wizarding world..." _And accessorily the fact that most his relations and friends in England were accomplished wizards. _"But what I do know is that the problem of the Japanese wizards comes from my country."

He had a sad expression on his face as he said this, and silence made itself felt in the room.

"Yes," said the mistress of the house. "It's true. The evil lord and his principles by which the magic dictatorship of our country is ruled originated in England." Hermione noticed that all the boys in the room had blushed merely hearing Koizumi's voice, even Harry and Ron, even young Conan, Kid was the only exception. The man dressed in white was looking at their host with an expressionless face, his only apparent eye showing his full mistrust.  
Seeing the magician's reaction, Koizumi stood from her chair, helped by her manservant.

"Careful mistress Akako, you still haven't recuperated from your magical expenditure." The young woman ignored her butler's recommendations.

"Luckily for us, there was also someone born there who should be able to stand against that cursed Tengu." She turned away from Kid, gesturing towards Harry with her hand. "You are him, aren't you? Harry Potter."

A surprised exclamation spilled forth from Hakuba's mouth.

Oops. Hermione had forgotten to activate the multilingual spell for Harry and Ron. She quickly fixed this, and Harry answered, still half dazed, the witch's question.

"Hai?" He said, an echo of the "_Yes?_" in his head.

"Shoot," muttered Ron below his breath. "I'll never get used to the transition to another language."

"Harry Potter? Really?" asked Hakuba. "I thought he still had a year to do at Hogwarts!" Hermione was glad to note that the auburn haired youth knew how to pronounce the name of their school properly.

" We decided to skive school as we have much more urgent goals than education..." replied Harry, careful to keep his face neutral. Koizumi Akako had stepped up close to him.

"My apologies for the welcoming committee." The Japanese witch traced along the scar on Harry's forehead with one of her nails. He did not know it yet, but she was the one responsible for his capture by the monster with red tentacles standing guard. All that was needed to trigger it was the trace of an evil spell or curse...  
"I imagine your visit is not one of courtesy?"  
Now she had slid her hand along his arm, the one that had been burnt by the lightning, but that was already starting to heal thanks to magic. Harry swallowed, his cheeks burning.

"I see that my charms haven't lost their efficiency," said Akako, a cynical grin on her features, as she stepped away, both to his displeasure and relief. "Those damn Tengu guards must have found some counter spell to be able to attack me. I understand better now."

Kid stayed indifferent as he noted her sending him a seductive look.

"Miss Koizumi, if we are here," Harry began, "it is because we were informed that you had the keep of some sort of amulet... And we wanted to ascertain whether or not it could be one of Voldemort's Horcruxes."

Kid raised an eyebrow seeing Hakuba, Koizumi, and the two foreigners tremble at the sound of that name.  
"What's a Horcruxe?" he asked Hakuba.  
"I don't know..." the detective replied in all honesty. "But if He-Who-Is-Not-Named is involved, it can not be good."  
_He-who-is-not-named, huh?_

"One of his...?" said Koizumi. "But already with one... But no, it is impossible that the object in my keep be a Horcruxe, at least not one of the original Tengu's."

"Are you certain?" queried Hermione. This had been one of their last lines of inquiry.

"Certainly... The magical stone under my guard has been under lock for over a hundred years," answered the Japanese women. "I'm sorry that I can't aid you more. At most I could look in my crystal ball, but..."

"Not much chances of it finding much, right?" went Ron, disappointed.

"A magical stone, I have heard it all..." grumbled Conan. Everyone ignored him.

"Koizumi!" Kid had stepped forward to grab the red witch's shoulder. "You have the keep of a stone you say?"

Surprised by his attitude, Akako nodded.

"Please don't tell me it's a stone that supposedly cries tears of immortality at the passing of a comet? A red stone hidden in the heart of another?"

The surprise on the young woman's face was all the confirmation he needed.  
"I see..." The melancholy and sadness in Kid's voice surprised the other occupants of the room. "So all my heists, all my searching... It was all for nought? During all this time, the stone known as Pandora was in your keep?"

"How do you know the name of that stone!"cried out Akako, her eyes wide with fear and anger.

"... I'll explain later." answered the moonlight thief, glancing at the two detectives who were suddenly much more attentive. "As for you problem, Mister Harry and friends, I wouldn't be surprised if those who were after Pandora had the Horcrux you are after."

"You mean...?" Harry seemed to be the quickest of the three on the uptake.

"Bug eyed guy was dumped in the basement right?" Kid asked the butler.

"Yes sir."

"Well why don't we ask him who sent him here." His grin was back on his face, as he twirled his cape. "And it would be my great pleasure to steal this 'Horcrux' from his boss, just for you." He bowed and placed a kiss on Hermione's hand. He ignored Conan's roll of the eyes and comment about his show-off habits, as well as Harry and Ron's grunts.

"No need to ask that pawn who his boss is. No doubt it is the wizard dictator, right, Koizumi?" intervened Hakuba.

"If truly you can help us to find and destroy this Horcrux, " said Harry, "I'm ready to bet this dictator won't be one for long."

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" asked Akako, obviously pleased by this proposal. "I like this plan."

And that is how the fall of the Tengu's reign in Japan began.

... As well as the discovery of a whole new world of mystery and surprise for a certain shrunken detective. After all, when it came to him, curiosity always ended up overcoming his scepticism.

--:--

-**FIN**-

_"From Charybdis to Scylla" :_ A more cultured way of saying "in between a rock and a hard place."  
- More info at Wikipedia  
_  
Tengu _: Conan fans, check out book 11 or episode 52 for Ran's favourite case "in which Kogoro screams like a girl!"  
Bad jokes aside, a Tengu is described as a monster or spirit with human and bird-like traits (and a big beak-like nose) who, at least in his some descriptions it seems, was a bringer of war (and likely death).  
"Voldemort" meaning "flight of death" in French, I thought Tengu would be an appropriate name for our wonderful He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and his followers in Japan!  
- Look at Wikipedia too.

Harry and co. travelling the world in search for Horcruxes is a suggestion of my sister who actually reads HP fan fiction, and seems to be fan theory as to what will happen in book 7. Considering I'd been blocking on how to get Conan and Harry in the same country, I found it very useful.


End file.
